SDSU's Long: New substitution rule unnecessary

Aztecs head coach Rocky Long doesn't think it's a good idea to amend the rules to force offenses to wait 10 seconds to snap the ball

SDSU safeties coach Danny Gonzales (left) and head coach Rocky Long (right) team up to question a call in the first half during SDSU's football game against Oregon State Saturday night at Qualcomm Stadium.
— Earnie Grafton

SDSU safeties coach Danny Gonzales (left) and head coach Rocky Long (right) team up to question a call in the first half during SDSU's football game against Oregon State Saturday night at Qualcomm Stadium.
— Earnie Grafton

The NCAA Football Rules Committee is proposing a rule change that would allow time for defensive substitutions within the first 10 seconds of the 40-second play clock.

This means that regardless of whether the offense chooses to substitute, it will only be allowed to snap the ball after the play clock hits the 29-second mark.

Snap the ball too early and you’d be slapped with – are you ready for the irony? – a delay of game penalty.

The rational proffered by the rules committee was player safety, but news of the proposal brought a litany of scorn from offensive coaches.

Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez took to Twitter to express his disgust:

“When you snap the ball has always been a fundamental edge for the offense – what’s next – 3 (sic) downs like Canada? #Let’sGetBoring”

Washington State coach Mike “Air Raid offense” Leach also did not mince words. In a radio interview with an Alabama radio station, he called the proposal “the most mind-numbingly dumb suggestion that I’ve ever heard.” and insinuated that it was proposed as a reaction to the success Auburn and Texas A&M have had with their hurry up offenses.

But when it comes down to it, it’s unlikely that the proposed rule change will pass when it comes up for a vote by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel in March.

Snap counts and cadence, as Rodriguez points out, are one of an offense’s biggest weapons and manipulating the play clock to keep defenses on their toes is part of the strategy of the game.

This change wouldn’t slow down the game in a meaningful way. It would make it a more boring, and result in a lot more dead time spent waiting – for the players and the fans.

And really, it’s unnecessary.

It’s not just the offensive coaches who are vehemently against the proposed rule change.

San Diego State’s Rocky Long is a defensive purist, and on multiple occasions, he has opined on how all the recent rule changes in college football have been geared toward giving the offense an advantage.

If anyone would applaud a move to slow down hurry up offenses and give the defense a chance to substitute and get set up, you’d think it would be Long.

But no.

“I don’t think that’s right,” Long said this week. “The offense ought to be able to go as fast as they want to as long as they don’t substitute a player. The defense needs to have a chance to substitute its personnel.

“If offenses want to be able to go that fast, don’t substitute anybody.”

According to current substitution rules, every time the offense substitutes a player, the official is supposed to give the defense three seconds to make its substitutions. To do this, he should step over the ball and looking toward the defensive sideline to see if players are coming in.

The problem the Aztecs ran into last year is that the rule is not consistently enforced from conference to conference.

“In our league games, they never step over the ball. They just look to the sideline and see if you have players to substitute. Then they go,” Long said. “The rules are fine the way they are if officials would be consistent.”